Ask Meena about her children and she would say she isn’t sure of all their names. “Only one lives with me and right now, I am not sure where he is. He had gone to the temple to get some food and must have found his friends there to play with…he will come home I guess,” says Meena, who lives in the shelter for homeless near Sai Baba Temple on Lodhi Road.
Meena, originally from Uttar Pradesh, was married and brought to Delhi. Her husband died a couple of years ago and now she is alone with her children. “The older children left and the others I have sent them back to my village. This child is with me,” she says.
Asked about why she doesn’t keep her children with her, Meena candidly replies, “The streets of Delhi are not for anyone and least of all for children. They are exposed to all kinds of abuse and violence. Diseases (mental and physical) also plague them. The overall development of the child is severally hampered, but there is little we can do,” says Meena, speaking about the non-existing security system for children at shelters for homeless.
“We don’t want to keep our children here,” says Jaharin. “Shelter home isn’t where we want our children to be. Delhi will devour them even before they can understand what is happening. Drug and substance abuse is rampant and assaults a norm. Also gender is no security. Both my girls are married and in the village. We are living here and I ensured that the girls were sent to their husbands’ house as early as possible,” she adds.
“Shelter home isn’t where we want our children to be. Delhi will devour them even before they can understand what is happening”
